Apple has launched a new app for iPhone users who love sports. The app, called Apple Sports, is designed to provide fast and easy access to real-time scores, stats, and more for various sports leagues and tournaments. The app is free to download and is available in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.
What is Apple Sports?
Apple Sports is an app that gives sports fans what they want – an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats. The app’s personalized experience puts users’ favorite leagues and teams front and center, featuring an easy-to-use interface designed by Apple. Users can customize their scoreboards by following their favorite teams, tournaments, and leagues. They can also explore play-by-play information, team stats, lineup details, and live betting odds.
Apple Sports supports the following leagues currently in season:
- MLS
- NBA
- NCAA basketball (men’s and women’s)
- NHL
- Bundesliga
- LaLiga
- Liga MX
- Ligue 1
- Premier League
- Serie A
Additional leagues will become available on Apple Sports over time, including MLB, NFL, NCAAF, NWSL, and WNBA for their upcoming seasons.
How to Watch Live Games on Apple Sports?
Apple Sports also has a feature that enables sports fans who want to tune into a game to move to Apple TV and other streaming apps. They will need to have active subscriptions for the games. Apple Sports will also seamlessly sync with favorites selected within the My Sports experience including in the Apple TV app and Apple News.
Apple has exclusive deals with some sports leagues to stream live games on Apple TV+. For example, Apple has a 10-year deal with MLS to show games on Apple TV+ through the “MLS Season Pass” that it kicked off last year. It also has “Friday Night Baseball” for MLB fans.
Why Did Apple Create Apple Sports?
Apple created Apple Sports to cater to the growing demand for sports content and data among its users. According to a report by Sensor Tower, sports apps saw a 75% increase in downloads in 2023 compared to 2020, reaching 1.1 billion downloads globally. The report also found that the U.S., the U.K., and Canada were among the top markets for sports app downloads, which aligns with the initial availability of Apple Sports.
Apple’s senior vice president of Services, Eddy Cue, said in a press release: “We created Apple Sports to give sports fans what they want – an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats. Apple Sports is available for free in the App Store, and makes it easy for users to stay up to date with their favorite teams and leagues.”
Apple Sports is part of Apple’s broader strategy to expand its services portfolio and generate more revenue from its loyal customer base. Apple’s services segment, which includes the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud, among others, brought in $87.5 billion in revenue in 2023, up 19% year-over-year. Apple Sports could help Apple attract more users to its other services, especially Apple TV+, which competes with other streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.
Apple Sports is available to download beginning today in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, with support for English, as well as French and Spanish where available. Apple Sports is free to download, and is available for all iPhone models running iOS 17.2 or later.
